The present invention relates to a system and method for classifying biological specimens. In particular, the present invention relates to building and improving a system and method for classifying biological specimens.
Classification of biological specimens has broad applications in the healthcare and research fields. Its uses range from diagnosing whether or not a patient has a disease, to determining which therapy will work for a particular patient, to determining the subclass of a tumor or microorganism. Though classification is performed routinely, it is often a difficult and imprecise process. Diagnosis of patients with incomplete symptoms or partially penetrated phenotypes, for instance, is a common, but difficult, problem.
For example, there are multiple tests to identify patients who are susceptible to life threatening arrhythmias. However, none of these tests have the desired specificity and sensitivity to reliably identify all patients at risk. As a result, many of these patients do not receive optimal therapy, and lives are lost every year.
Current diagnostic or classification techniques utilize symptoms reported by patients, the presence or measurement of biological and physiological markers, and the experience and intuition of the healthcare provider. In order to make classification more reliable, researchers have tried to identify new biological and physiological markers. Current scientific methods for discovering new markers require previous knowledge of the biochemical pathway for a particular disease or process. In addition, only one marker can be studied at a time—making it a difficult, expensive, and lengthy process.
It is likely that many indicators associated with each disease or condition exist, but medical knowledge has not yet hypothesized their roles in these pathways. Therefore, there is a need for an improved process for classifying biological specimens and identifying new indicators to continually improve the process.